Relocating? As we saw last month, it’s a complicated business for Christians on the move. While issues like closeness to family or schools loom large and programmes like Escape to the Country push the line of finding the perfect house, Christians are faced with the challenge: how to move in a way that keeps the gospel central?
Whatever the presenting reason for moving — a need for more space, a new job, the need to care for family members, Christians only thrive when they are being fed by God’s Word and are part of a church family where they can use their gifts to serve and encourage others. This means that, for those of us who are thinking of moving house, the aim should be to put finding a church like this at the top of our list of priorities. In other words, to put those glossy house brochures to one side until it is clear which church it is right to settle in: one where the Bible is preached clearly and faithfully and where there will be opportunities to serve and encourage others. This month EN talks to four people, Jennifer, Bill, Richard and Jane (not their real names) who have sought to do that. They tell us how they went about it, what issues they faced and how they feel now about their decision to put church first.
A conscious choice
While our four house hunters had different reasons for having to relocate, it was striking that all of them reacted to the need to move in the same way. Rather than instantly reading every property section in all the Sunday papers, instead they made a conscious decision: to move with the priority of finding a good church to be a part of. In other words, this was not something they merely hoped would happen: it was something they actively decided to make the guiding influence on finding their new home.
